Author: L. Sydney Fisher

An Introduction with Acknowledgements

During the 1990’s, the United States Army trained special agents believed to hold extraordinary supernatural abilities.  The secret program known as Stargate used a method of psychic spying or remote viewing to see beyond normal human ability.  Remote viewing is a term coined by the military, but is otherwise known as clairvoyance.  Although this program was shut down in November, 1995 after a CIA investigation deemed it non-contributory to the military, I believe the project was worth the research, but our probability of harnessing the power behind telekinesis was too far into the future for our current understanding.

A couple of years ago, I stumbled across a book by Major Ed Dames and Joel Harry Newman titled Tell Me What You See.    The book was Dames’ personal account as an operations and training officer for the Defense Intelligence Agency’s Psychic Intelligence Unit.  Within seconds of thumbing through the pages, I found myself hooked.  Suddenly years of my own curiosities and personal experiences were validated, and I became totally consumed with learning all about the military’s interest in Parapsychology, the same subject that I had spent my entire life researching while struggling to convince myself that my own psychic experiences were definitely real and not the result of an overactive imagination.  My fascination with Stargate prompted a year’s worth of investigations.  I studied numerous articles and books related to the Army’s remote viewing program, telekinesis, telepathy, and clairvoyance.  And I have included a suggested reading list, a few of my favorites, at the end of this book for those of you who want to explore the subject.

During the months that followed Seth Phoenix’s transformation from the creative recesses of my mind to the pages that follow, I sought the help of military personnel and soldiers willing to give me an interview and a look inside their world.  And it is with deep appreciation that I acknowledge and thank these individuals.

To Deputy Joshua Hood, former Sergeant in the U. S. Army 82^nd Airborne and author of the Mason Kane series and debut novel, Clear by Fire (Simon and Schuster)…thank you for sharing your knowledge and giving me your time.  During the months that followed, you were always “just a phone call away” if I needed your help.  I will always appreciate your friendship and admire your undeniable talent as an author.

To Ret. Command Sergeant Major Ronald V. Coleman, your leadership and knowledge was invaluable to my research and proved to be the key I needed in Seth Phoenix’s creation.  I offer my sincerest gratitude.

To Lieutenant Colonel, Kelly Mims, U. S. Army Reserve who has probably already forgotten about this project…thank you for giving me your time and knowledge all those months ago when I first began building the outline and foundation for The Phoenix Mission.  I sincerely appreciate your willingness to help me during my times of research and writing.

To you, I hope that you enjoy The Phoenix Mission.  Within these pages, you will find historical fiction traced with a little science fiction and a dose of reality.  You choose what’s real and what isn’t as you meet some of the characters who actually lived during the Stargate Program’s operation.  Just remember, in the end and under direct orders of the CIA…this never happened.

Source: The Phoenix Mission

Hello, Everyone!  Let me apologize for being out of touch for the past several weeks.  I have been completely submerged in my writing as I finish up this next project!  This is due for release in a couple of weeks.  The Phoenix Mission was inspired by my interest in a military program known as Stargate.  When I stumbled across this subject a couple of years ago, I became fascinated with its history and began reading everything I could find on the program.  Several remote viewers published their own accounts about the Stargate program and their time serving as a psychic spy for the United States Army.  I have studied the paranormal my entire life.  When I say the “paranormal”, I don’t just mean ghosts.  Paranormal is a broad term that includes unexplained phenomena.  Psychic insights, ESP (extrasensory perception), premonition, precognition, prophecy, telekinesis, psychometrics, and telepathy are all terms that I am very familiar with.  When I discovered that our own government had funded such research, it was a defining moment for me.  Suddenly, all my curiosities were validated.  I mean, surely if our government thought there was something worth investigating and researching about this strange phenomena, I must not be wrong to believe in its possibility.  And then Russia?  Yes, Russia already had a psychic spy many years prior to the start up of our program.  Her name was Nina, and she was probably the only human being in the world whose abilities had never been proven a hoax. (Based on my findings, I could not disprove Nina’s ability.)

And so after months of reading and researching, a character was born.  His name is Seth Phoenix.  Seth means “the appointed one”, and he has lived with a secret for his entire life.  He is a sergeant major in the United States Army.  America has a new weapon, and on this day the Phoenix is rising.

Check out this story in today’s Northeast MS Daily Journal!  I hope to see you there!

Some of you have asked about the Haunted Evening~  I have posted details on my timeline here.  Please check it out and connect with me by clicking LIKE.  https://www.facebook.com/LSydneyFisher

And remember…SLEEP WITH THE LIGHTS ON!

Go ahead.  Get Your SCARE On!

SLEEP WITH THE LIGHTS ON!

How many times have you had that funny feeling?  You know what I’m talking about.  That feeling of being watched but there is no one else in the room.  It can cause your skin to crawl.  Tingling from the bottom of the feet to the top of the head.  You hear a snap.  A click.  A thump.  You spin around to find nothing.  The television remote is right where you left it.  The bedroom door is only open enough to allow a trail of light, illuminating a path to the bathroom.  You climb into bed and lay dead still.  Something or someone is watching.  You breathe slow, deep breaths as your eyes dart back and forth across the room.  Footsteps.  You know you heard them.  One. Two. Three. Four.  It stops right in front of your door.  You imagine a foggy mist drifting toward you and become stiff, like a tree trunk refusing to be uprooted from a century’s old position.  Your heart begins to pound so hard that you wonder if it can possibly sustain such an incredible pace for more than a minute or two.  As your mind races, your body begins to tire.  Soon you are exhausted and your eyelids begin to flutter, fighting to stand watch.  The eyeball becomes red and irritated as tear glands began to flush the inside of your lids.  Your cheeks are moistened by the droplets that spill from the corners of your eyes.  And finally you give in to sleep.  Your eyes close as you whisper a prayer for safety against the invisible intruder that stalks you night after night.  In the dark.  As you sleep.  Watching.

Natalie Bradford and her children lived the nightmare for three months.  Night after night, Timothy lay in bed fighting to stay awake.  Because he knew.  He knew when he closed his eyes that she would be there.  She would be there screaming at him.  Begging him to rescue her from the certainty of her death.  But he was only a witness.  Like Natalie Bradford, Timothy was a witness to the horror she felt during her last moments.  And Natalie Bradford was Liz Bradford’s vindicator.  There was no other explanation.  Too many strange coincidences surfaced during Natalie’s involvement with the Bradfords.  Although the outcome of Devon Bradford’s murder trial was merely linked to “circumstantial evidence”, The Haunting of Natalie Bradford was far from being circumstantial.  It was the catalyst that the ghost of Liz Bradford needed to reveal her killer.  And night after night, she waited and watched.  Summoning Natalie Houston to wake up.  Wake up, Natalie.  Wake up.

The Haunting of Natalie Bradford is a book that consisted of years of research and procrastination.  Part of the procrastination was due to the fear of what might happen if I exposed secrets that had laid dormant for four decades.  During the months of investigation, I interviewed numerous people and spent hours at the local courthouse.  For about six weeks, I visited the file room and sat at a small cluttered table reading the documents.  I was surrounded by a roomful of more secrets.  Some probably more disturbing than the ones that I was uncovering.  But those weren’t my story.  My story was about a triangle of people.  Natalie Houston, Liz Bradford, and Devon Bradford.  Most importantly, Natalie Houston.

I remember traveling to a nearby county courthouse and examining the marriage records of Natalie and Devon Bradford.  The chancery clerk seemed too concerned about my interest in their public records since I noticed him hanging around the room while I searched the dockets.  As I flipped the pages of the large leather bound book, I literally froze when I saw the wedding date.  My mouth fell open and I felt my skin tingle as the sensation crawled from the backs of my legs to the top of my head.  How could Natalie Bradford NOT have noticed ANY of these strange coincidences when she was involved with Devon Bradford?  They married on the birthday of his murdered wife, Liz Bradford.  Was she that oblivious to what was transpiring around her?

I managed to gain my composure and begin searching for the couple’s divorce records.  I flipped through the pages unaware that the most important coincidence in the entire story was about to surface.  There it was.  February 6, 1978.  Exactly three years after Devon Bradford was indicted for the murder of his first wife, Liz Bradford.  A pattern was emerging, but why?  Something was happening that was beyond logical explanation.

It’s no secret that Natalie Houston did NOT believe in ghosts or paranormal phenomena.  She simply brushed those topics aside as unsolved mysteries, but Natalie found herself in dangerous circumstances that seemed to tell a dead woman’s story.  Liz Bradford was murdered on the front parking lot of the prestigious Rex Plaza Motel where she worked.  According to court documents and other research, there were no eye witnesses to the murder.  We are left to guess what actually occurred on the night of December 21, 1974 just before midnight.  And the spirit of Liz Bradford cannot rest…

Weeks passed as I interviewed numerous people.  One of the people that I interviewed was in the courtroom during Devon Bradford’s trial.  As I began to ask probing questions, he conveniently forgot most of what he was about to say.  I was later warned to be careful about how far I was probing into the case.  “Some secrets were better left in a dead woman’s grave.”

After I finished my research of Devon Bradford’s trial, I returned to the file room hoping to review the court records one last time.  I wanted to make sure that I had not overlooked anything during the process.  I greeted the office staff as I walked through the doors of the circuit clerk’s office and made my way to the back of the room where the small, crowded file room was located.  I entered the room and placed my backpack on the table that I had been using for the past six weeks.  I walked over to the section where Devon Bradford’s court records were filed and began to flip through the folders.  I paused and studied the folders with a look of confusion.  Gone.  All of them.  I quickly walked out of the room and questioned the circuit clerk about the file.  She offered no explanation except that ‘attorneys come in here all the time and pull files’.  I became frustrated and left.  I got inside my car and sat there mulling over what could have happened to the missing files.  I remembered a conversation that I had a few days before with someone who had announced that I was researching the Bradford case.  Lesson learned.  NEVER trust anyone when you are doing research that may hold dangerous secrets.  I went back in the courthouse and entered the file room.  For the next two hours, I searched every cabinet and box in that file room looking for Devon Bradford’s records.

The Haunting of Natalie Bradford became a story of vindication for Liz Bradford.  What started out as just another ghost story turned into much more.  Fast forward.  It’s August, 2015.  Devon Bradford’s court transcripts have never been found…